The present invention relates generally to field of image retrieval and organization. More specifically, the present invention is directed to multimedia creation using digital objects (e.g., images).
Photographs play a central role in many types of informal storytelling. One of the most common and enjoyable uses for photographs is to share stories about experiences, travels, friends and family. Almost everyone has experience with this form of storytelling, which ranges from the exchange of personal reminiscences to family and cultural histories. The World Wide Web can facilitate the sharing of such stories in digital form and has inspired a movement towards xe2x80x9cdigital storytelling.xe2x80x9d Stories in digital form are referred to herein as digital stories. Digital photographs have an advantage over print photographs in that users can search for and retrieve them both by their content (e.g., features such as color and texture) and by their metadata (e.g., user-supplied text annotations). Today, most digital stories are created by people with computer skills using special-purpose software for editing images and authoring Web pages. Furthermore, these digital stories are created on systems relying on graphical interfaces dependent on windows, or tables, and some type of pointing or control device. Such systems are typically not portable and are complex to use. These features make these systems difficult to share. These systems also require significant training and are inadequate for mass consumer use.
A method and a system that combine capabilities for storing, authoring, and viewing various forms of digital media are described. In one embodiment, the system comprises means for accepting a cartridge having a slot for a memory device to store a plurality of media objects, means for displaying the plurality of media objects in reduced visual representations in at least one track, and means for navigating among the reduced visual representations.